The McDevitt Track Dynasty
Paul Poiesz was a Bishop McDevitt alumnus who came back to coach track at his alma mater for 25 seasons (1981-2005). Over that span his Lancers won 14 Catholic League championships — 12 of them outright and two shared — making Poiesz one of the most successful track coaches the Catholic League has ever produced.
1986 — The First Outright Title
Poiesz's first outright Catholic League championship came in 1986, after shared titles in 1982 and 1985. The meet at Father Judge High finished with McDevitt scoring 113 points — without a single football-adjacent touchdown or a field goal, the old sportswriting joke went. The headliners were two McDevitt football stars on loan to the track team: quarterback Tom Taylor, who hurled the javelin 192 feet, 3½ inches to win the field-events MVP, and wingback Mark Dianno, who ran his way to multiple sprint titles.
Taylor, who had started throwing the javelin as a sophomore at the suggestion of a friend looking to strengthen his football arm, had finished eighth in the Catholic League as a 10th grader with a 144-foot throw. New field events coach Bob Supplee transformed Taylor's technique the next year by teaching him to throw the 12-pound shot put with the same overhand motion used for the 1-pound, 12-ounce javelin. By 1986 — in just his third year throwing the event — Taylor was the Catholic League MVP of field events with a throw nearly 15 feet longer than the second-place finisher.
The Program and the Stars
Across his 25 seasons, Poiesz developed a deep bench of Catholic League champions. His most celebrated individual achievement was Sean Seraphin's Catholic League pole vault record of 15 feet, 0 inches — a mark that stood for years. His program also turned out Travis Sellers, Julian Edwards, and dozens of other All-Catholic honorees who went on to run at Division I and III programs across the country.
